Wednesday Potpourri

First, just as we and many others averred, the casualty figures coming out of Gaza, offered by Hamas, were seriously inflated. Now the United Nations has revised them downward, by approximately 50%.

The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies has the story:

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revised its child fatality figure from the Gaza war sharply downward, reporting more than 14,500 deaths on May 6 but then 7,797 on May 8. OCHA also revised downward its figure for women fatalities from more than 9,500 deaths to 4,959 deaths. The Jerusalem Post first reported the changes on May 11.

The UN attributed its original, higher figures to the Hamas-controlled Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza, whose figures OCHA has cited continually for the past two months. The UN gave no source for the lower figures in its May 8 update, but the figures precisely match those in a May 2 report from a different Hamas-controlled organization, the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Just think, American media outlets bought the Hamas figures, without question.

Second, meanwhile in Eastern Europe, the war in Ukraine continues to rage. American politicians have decided that we need to continue our support, no matter the cost. Some have demurred, only to see themselves denounced as Putin stooges.

Anyway, you might remember famed British political strategist Dominic Cummings. He was a senior adviser to prime minister Boris Johnson. Apparently, there was a power struggle in Johnson’s mind, between Cummings and Carrie-- that is, Johnson’s wife, Carrie. Cummings lost and resigned. The Johnson prime ministership did not survive it.

Anyway, Politico Europe reports the musings of Dominic Cummings on the Ukraine.

“This is not a replay of 1940 with Zelenskyy as the Churchillian underdog,” he said.

“This whole Ukrainian corrupt mafia state has basically conned us all and we’re all going to get f**ked as a consequence. We are getting f**ked now right?”

In a follow-up tweet, Cummings later branded Zelenskyy a “potemkin” leader — but denied he’d called him a “pumpkin” as originally quoted in the interview.

In the game of international Realpolitik, our support for Ukraine has merely pushed Russia and China into an alliance. Considering that the leaders of those countries are getting together this week, Cummings’ thoughts have some pertinence.

Politico Europe explains:

He [Cummings] argued that war would only strengthen the relationship between Russia and China, saying Western nations “pushed [Russia] into an alliance with the world’s biggest manufacturing power.”

Cummings has long been critical of support for Ukraine, a stance that puts him sharply at odds with his old boss Johnson, a vocal supporter of Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s war effort.

He told the paper the West had failed to send Russian President Vladimir Putin a worthwhile signal which would deter him from invading another country.

Third, I have often warned of this outcome, but clearly those student revolutionaries who are protesting for the Palestinian people will soon find themselves jobless. Employers are likely to hold their jejune political activities against them

The National Law Journal reports on the policy at mega law firm, Sullivan and Comwell:

As pro-Palestinian protests spread across university campuses, Sullivan & Cromwell’s senior chair said Wednesday the firm will be “more vigilant” in screening potential candidates. The firm is now outlining some of its vetting processes in that effort, including reviewing resumes, social media, news reports and student group affiliations and employing third-party specialists for background checks. …

Senior firm chair Joe Shenker has maintained a strong position against hate speech and bias during the Israel/Hamas conflict, taking the lead on efforts such as a group letter signed by dozens of law firm leaders sent to law school deans that maintained an “unequivocal stance” in opposition to antisemitism. Shenker was in his Jerusalem synagogue’s bomb shelter when the Hamas-led attack on Israel began on Oct. 7.

In a statement Wednesday, Sullivan & Cromwell said it will “review resumes for participation in pro-terrorist groups and other similar activities” as well as do a “thorough review of the candidate’s online presence, school website [and] news reports” moving forward.

It will also request “lists of all campus organizations the student has been or is currently a part of and monitor activities from those groups that do no align with our ethical standards,” the firm said.

In addition, the firm said it will employ third-party specialists to do formal background checks.

Fourth, just in case you thought I was picking on Kamala Harris and Karine Jean-Pierre by occasionally highlighting their rank stupidity, another administration figure, one Jared Bernstein, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors ranks very high in the stupidity derby. As noted previously, the supremely unqualified Bernstein has degrees in art and social work.

This is Bernstein’s response to a question about monetary policy, via Powerline:

Well, um, the – er – so the – I mean – again, some of the stuff gets – some of the language that the – erm – some of the language and concepts are just confusing. I mean, the government definitely prints money, and it definitely lends that money, which is why – erm, er – the government definitely prints money, and then it lends that money by – er – by selling bonds – er – is that what they do? They, they – erm – they – yeah, they, they – erm – they sell bonds – yeah, they sell bonds, right, so as they sell bonds and people buy bonds and lend them the money – yup – so a lot of times, a lot of times – at least to my ear – with [Modern Monetary Theory] the language and the concepts can be kind of unnecessarily confusing, but there is no question that the government prints money and then it uses that money to – um, er, uh – er – so – um – yeah, I – I – I guess I’m just – I don’t – I can’t really talk – eh, I don’t – I don’t get it – I don’t know what they’re talking about, like, ’cos – it’s like – the government clearly prints money, it does it all the time, and it clearly borrows, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this that ’n’ defic – conversation, so I don’t think there’s anything confusing there.

Fifth, from Sarah Montalbano at the Independent Women’s Forum, this summation of a recent JP Morgan Chase study of what will happen if we move away from fossil fuels:

A recent report from JPMorgan Chase warns that moving away from fossil fuels will take “decades or generations,” citing inflation, high interest rates, and geopolitics. This prediction is at odds with U.S. government policies mandating a rapid and complete transition.

The report highlights the high costs of supplanting reliable, affordable fossil fuel sources with wind and solar. JPMorgan estimates that the wind and solar buildout between 2024 and 2030 will take approximately $3 trillion annually, or “0.5% of the global annual GDP.” That’s an enormous amount of cash, and leaves “governments (and ultimately taxpayers) as the major underwriters of the energy transition.”

It’s unclear what that $3 trillion annually covers, but the cost of renewable energy includes far more than manufacturing wind turbines and solar panels, which require the mining of large quantities of critical minerals. However, because the wind is not always blowing and the sun does not shine 24/7, battery storage must be built to store electricity and compensate for intermittency.

Utilities must then ensure a reliable dispatchable power source, such as a natural gas plant, is available to ramp generation up or down—which is not only a capital expenditure, but can incur wear and tear and higher fuel costs. Utilities also usually significantly overbuild wind and solar, to try to meet peak demand, adding to their cost.

Because wind and solar use ten times as much land per unit of power as natural gas or coal-fired plants, and the areas with high wind and solar resources are often far from populated areas, these sources must be interconnected to the grid and more high-voltage transmission lines will need to be constructed.

The short-term solution, according to JPMorgan’s report, is “the coal to natural gas switch,” which “could save up to 17% of global emissions compared to a 2022 baseline.” Natural gas is a cleaner-burning fuel than coal and emits less carbon dioxide. The U.S. electric power sector’s emissions were 32% lower in 2019 than in 2005, thanks to the electricity generation mix shifting toward natural gas.

The JPMorgan report astutely notes that “social unrest and consumer revolt,” are possibilities from the “rising energy costs,” of an “expedited transition.” No kidding. 

JPMorgan’s warning should remind us that reliability and affordability should guide U.S. energy policy. A 100% wind and solar grid does no one any good if it cannot keep the heat on in a freezing winter.

Sixth, I probably do not need to tell you that the American academic world has become a full blown idiotocracy. You need but turn on the news to hear some professorial imbecile ranting about God-only-knows what. If you ask how someone who indulges in such cretinous blather got his or her degree, not to mention a tenured faculty position, you will conclude that the system is hopelessly corrupt.

Of course, Humanities and Social Science departments are thoroughly compromised. And yet, the brain rot also extends to science, and especially to scientific publications. You might call it plagiarism, but it seems more likely to be rank incompetence, gaming the system.

Now a major academic publisher, Wiley, is being forced to delete thousands of supposedly scientific papers, on the grounds that they are fraudulent.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Fake studies have flooded the publishers of top scientific journals leading to thousands of retractions and millions of dollars in lost revenue. The biggest hit has come to Wiley, a 217-year-old publisher based in Hoboken, N.J., which Tuesday will announce that it is closing 19 journals, some of which were infected by large-scale research fraud. 

In the past two years, Wiley has retracted more than 11,300 papers that appeared compromised, according to a spokesperson, and closed four journals. It isn’t alone: At least two other publishers have retracted hundreds of suspect papers each. Several others have pulled smaller clusters of bad papers.

Although this large-scale fraud represents a small percentage of submissions to journals, it threatens the legitimacy of the nearly $30 billion academic publishing industry and the credibility of science as a whole.

The discovery of nearly 900 fraudulent papers in 2022 at IOP Publishing, a physical sciences publisher, was a turning point for the nonprofit. “That really crystallized for us, everybody internally, everybody involved with the business,” said Kim Eggleton, head of peer review and research integrity at the publisher. “This is a real threat.”

I trust that you caught that. 11,200 papers withdrawn, because they were fakes. What does that say about American science?

Seventh, on the entertainment front, New York Mayor Eric Adams has outdone himself. He has found a solution to the migrant invasion. 

Having noted that the city is running short of lifeguards, Adams recommended that migrants be hired for these jobs. Why? Because “they’re excellent swimmers.”

Just another day in the Big Apple.

Please subscribe to my Substack, for free or preferably for a fee.